The field of this invention relates to a cigarette snuffing attachment for ashtrays and other structures wherein the attachment can be modified in shape to connect with almost any outside structure.
In the home, and also in public places, such as passengers in automobiles and aircraft, hotel lobbys and auditoriums, there is a substantial danger of fire from incompletely distinguished cigarettes in conventional ashtrays. The crushing of cigarettes, which is the usual method of extinction in conventional ashtrays, often leaves smouldering remnants which constitutes a fire hazard. A much more effective method of extinction is to introduce the lighted end of a cigarette into a hollow cylinder of non-combustible material and of a diameter only slightly larger than the cigarette. In such a cylinder, a cigarette is totally extinguished in a very short period of time, usually within five seconds, due to lack of oxygen for burning.
In the past, there has been employed cylindrical shaped snuffers. Such cigarette snuffers are to be attached by a specific type of fastening device to an ashtray or similar structure, or is connected to a pedestal or stanchion of some type which is to be located within an ashtray or adjacent thereto. The prior art cigarette snuffer is designed to be incorporated within a single type of supporting apparatus which inherently limits its extent of use. There is a wide variety of structures to which it would be desirable to connect a cigarette snuffer. However, since all previous cigarette snuffers are designed with one particular attachment means in mind, there has not been a cigarette snuffer which has been adapted to be connectable to a wide variety of configurations of ashtrays or other types of supporting structure. A cigarette snuffer must be employed in combination with a structure such as a receptacle for the disposing of cigarettes. By itself, a cigarette snuffer is of little value. Previous to this invention, there has been no known cigarette snuffing device which is designed to be readily connectable to practically any configuration of cigarette disposal receptacle.